Tom Doyle has been Colorado's only openly Gay elected official since 1989 when he was elected to the Canon City School Board. Now in his second term, he was the first Gay School Board President in the United States. Tom is County Commissioner in Fremont County (Canon City) and was elected Chairman on the day he took office. He is also Chairman of the five county Upper Aransas Area Counsel of governments. He is now running for United States Congress.
Tom is Governor Romer's appointee to various state boards including the Governor's AIDS Council, the Office of Rural Job Training, and the Arkansas River Coordinating Council. In 1979 Tom founded the National Gay Broadcasting Service to distribute news across NPR. In 1981 he was elected co-chair of the Board of the Denver Lesbian and Gay Community Center. He has focused over the last decade on home care of PLWA's. Five advanced PEA have lived and died in Tom's Canon City home. Tom has a strong interest in rodeo. He has been working to improve the rodeo grounds in Canon City, home of the oldest continuous rodeo in the United States. He has been a member of the Board of the 4H Foundation since 1992. He is a supporter and pass member of CGRA.
The Pikes Peak United Rodeo (PPUR) began in September 1991 as the Pikes Peak UNIT Rodeo. The reason being that we were holding a one Day rodeo on Saturday verse a two [day] full blown rodeo event. Phoenix was going to do a one day on Sunday in conjunction with our rodeo. In July of 1991 we found out that Phoenix was unable to do their one day event on Sunday. The Colorado Springs association with the help of Denver, then had to scramble to put together a full blown rodeo. Seven months later in April of 92 we had another rodeo to do (The September date was not available for 92.) At that time the name got changed to the Pikes Peak UNITED Rodeo.
Each year the rodeo has continued to Grow, This Year will be the 5th Annual Pikes Peak United Rodeo and looking forward to many more. As in the past 4 years the rodeo will be held at the Penrose Stadium.
